(Still) Sacrificing for Salvation: Millenarian Motherhood Reconsidered

Abstract

The author considers the inherent contradiction between sacrifice and salvation as articulated and practiced by female Saints in what the African Hebrew Israelite Community (AHIC)—or the Black Hebrews—refer to as their Kingdom of God. Toward the aim of understanding how and why these women reconcile daily sacrifices with the millenarian belief that they have found salvation, it presents Black Hebrew women's life stories as dialogic encounters with Old Testament personages and the grand redemption narrative of the Bible coupled with their reflections on what awaits women of African descent in white- and Christian-dominated America.